Day 6 - Freedom of Choice: Other Meditation Anchors

After a week of small, bite sized meditations and some background to each, we’ve practiced various methods. Today's meditation includes a slightly longer period of silence.

We quickly get used to doing things in a particular way. If you are not used to meditating, perhaps taking 5 or 10 minutes each day felt like a fair amount of time. Similarly, if you regularly sit for an hour, a 2 hr sitting would feel like a very long time indeed. If you usually sit for longer, the 5 minute meditations might have felt a little chatty, short or even rushed.

But whatever your time frame, practice or experience, I hope you found something inspirational along the way.

Today we'll focus on using anchors to help us stay focused. For most of us breathing meditation is – or might become – our customary anchor. Breath comes naturally and we don’t have to give it too much thought. Which is why we use it as a first practice anchor in meditation. Its portable, automatic, rhythmic and easy.

But for some – and perhaps sometimes for us – breathing doesn’t feel like a neutral place to rest our awareness – our breath might feel physically restricted or we may have negative memories of breathing or feel anxious. And then the breath is not rhythmic and doesn’t feel like an anchor. Or sometimes we may just need to stretch out of our comfort zone and try something a little different.

Although we can focus on our heart area, either tapping into our heartbeat or using our heart area as a point of focus to see what comes up, at some point our heart may feel heavy and using that as an anchor may not always open us up to loving kindness, instead opening us up to our feelings of loneliness or sadness.

We can focus on our body, using mindfulness of body and senses, but sometimes we have pain in our body, or our senses aren’t all functioning 100%.

The choice of an anchor to use for our meditation is a very personal choice. It can become a little spiritual workout – even before we start our meditation – almost an act of meditation itself. Although there are many choices, we practice using just one point of focus per meditation instead of skipping between two or more anchors.

Remember mindfulness is a way of paying attention so that our mind is fully aware, awake, involved and tuned into the activity we are engaged in at the present moment. This can be formal sitting, but can also involve daily tasks, such as washing dishes, cooking or paying attention to what people are saying to you.

So here are some choices that might help us to stay in a meditative mindful state:

You could use a soft candle flame, a Himalaya salt lamp, lava lamp or a nightlight – as long as the light is not too bright. If using a candle a soy candle is advised because wax candles can be very bright and hurt your eyes after a time. Maintaining a soft but focused and gently concentrated gaze. In yoga it is called a 'drishti'. If your gaze strays or you start to "see shapes", you know your mind is wandering and you return to a soft, neutral gaze.

You can use burning incense, a scented candle or essential oils. Keeping your eyes closed, you can stay with the changes and tones of the fragrance as you breathe.

You can use the sound of running water, a continuous sound such as monks chanting or soft repetitive music which doesn’t evoke emotions, memories or move you into thinking. Just as the sound meditation we used before, you can concentrate on the changes in tone, pitch or volume, the spaces in between sounds, the silences, etc.

You can use walking as a meditation. Walking mindfully, using breath while taking steps. The traditional method is breathing in as you take one step, breathing out as you take the next step and so on. You can use your yoga class as a meditation, or any other slow, repetitive activity as mindful movement. Staying fully attentive to every movement of the body, how it feels and responds.

You can use one word or a phrase – like a mantra or chanting - either out loud or silently to yourself. This is called Japa meditation.

You can practice mindful eating or drinking.

You could use Mudras - hand gestures - keeping your attention anchored to maintaining your hands in the Mudra.

There are many anchors, and perhaps you will come up with an idea I haven't thought about here. Before you start the short meditation, if you feel you want to use something other than your breath, please use whatever you feel will suit your meditation today. And if it's the breath, that's also just fine.